Vampire®: The Masquerade - Bloodlines™

Excellent game. First played in the 2000s with all the bugs and all. The only way we could beat the religious guy was hide under the water tower and he glitched and couldn't path find to us haha. The haunted house is still scary 20 years later. ClamTK reports that the offline backup files contain "PUA.Win.Malware.Speedingupmypc-6718419-0" (which Microsoft reckons it is is usually part of an installer). Since this is from GOG I'm going to assume it's safe.

TLDR; The game delivers on the dark urban atmosphere and bouts of comedy that pair surprisingly well with horror. Memorable characters, good progression, meaningful choice in how to handle problems, with combat that's a little lacking. There aren't many characters in this game (it's not particularly big), but they're all memorable. Fantastic voice acting and face animations that hold up better than even modern one. No favoritism either, major characters and one-off extras really sell their role. The original tracks really contribute to the urban gothic feel the devs were going for, with some painful cheesy early 00s songs that still manage to work. It's charmingly authentic. Character progression's great, really sells the narrative in game that your neonate character quickly reaches their full potential. The disciplines are fun to mess around with, but the controls make accessing them a pain. You have to scroll through them one at a time to reach the one you want to use. Moving to combat; It's a mixed bag. As mentioned earlier, going through powers can be a pain, especially if your disciplines gives different powers instead of upgrading just one. You might also have problems with using guns if you don't invest points into them. The game thankfully gives you a lot of options for handling missions. You can tell Tim Cain worked on this, as you usually get action-oriented solutions as well as stealthy or talkative options. Using the less straight-forward solutions nets more XP, which lets you try out more options. Overall, I think the game's a treat. Highly replayable owing to its short overall length (still packed with content), different clans to try, different ways to tackle problems, and multiple endings.

It's unfinished, buggy and old. But the charm of the characters, the ambience, the music, the level design (excluding the sewers, of course) plus the replay value, makes this one the best role playing games EVER made.

Who is to say that action games cannot be RPGs? Here we have a first and third person action game with tabletop origins, and the only video game one can claim has outright more role-playing than it is Fallout 2. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, Troika's final game and the first ever Source game, is one of the best games ever made. It is a matured RPG with fully voiced characters barring the protagonist. Many clans (races) to choose from and a faithful, in-depth representation of VTM's stat system, more comprehensive than most of today's isometric 2.5D RPGs. And a ton more role-playing and better writing quality as well. Taking some inspiration from the great Deus Ex, Bloodlines is a hub-based game ripe with character interaction, often putting the player in difficult situations with no clear answers or ways to win. You are a puppet within a grand scheme. Everyone you can converse with is actually a character, not a quest giving bot or plot device, something VERY rare not only to video gaming but TV and film too. Characters with a distinct appearance, one of a kind facial animations that stack up to today's technology (better than crap like Fallout 4's), unique behavior and mannerisms, and often some kind of agenda. They never act out of character, and they are perfectly voiced. I had no prior interest in vampires, but this game made me a fan. There is an unbelievable amount of role-playing. In fact, the entire game is re-written for two specific clan choices; Nosferatu and Malkavian. Do not play Malkavian first. Most will tell you not to play Nosferatu first either, but I did and it's fine. Yes, you have to sneak around in the sewers more, and quests can get more confusing when people are afraid to talk to you, but it's all understandable. Whereas Malkavian... understandable? No. GOG's version of the game comes with the latest unofficial patch, so it is good to go out of the box. Glitches and bugs still exist, but they aren't game breaking anymore.

I bought...or rather my parents bought me this game right after the release in 2004 (I was fourthteen that time). Then I was very exicted about this game, especially when I read a rewiev in one of the most popular polish video games magazine. I remember that the game was rather expensinve for polish standards...I have remember this day exactly even today. Seriously! What I want to write right here might be "a little bit" stranbe but - I finished this game three days ago - during the #stayathome action. And my speculations that it might one of the best game ever have come true! I can't count how many times I tried to start this game again and again. I played it a lot, but I have never finished it. And I can't say exactly why. I have never thought about it as bad game, I was never even been discouraged by a lot of bugs. It simple happened. But I was always noticing the advantages of this game which constantly were pushing me to keep trying to play it. And couple of days ago I decided that "I will complete this game, now or never!". And this was my best experience in my gamer's life. I love every aspect of this game (atmosphere, characters, voice acting. story), maybe except for the combat mechanic. But my most beloved thing is that this the game is so much rooted in reality like no game before and after. Playing VtM:B you can feel that you are in the real world that you know and experience in every day life. You are also willing to believe that the vampires can live in your world following to the thesis that world might be not what it seems. I have 30 years old and this is the best game I've ever played. It was took me 16 years to make it realize. Don't make this mistake, buy it, play it and finihed it.